10 Turkey-Topping Thanksgiving Records that will make you ready for the holidays

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Each year in America, the ultimate food and family-oriented holiday is celebrated in November.

Thanksgiving marks the day that the first settlers in the USA peacefully broke bread with the Native Americans in the same, 15th century territory.

Since that first community dinner in the USA, it has become a traditional gathering for friends and kin to come together and share each other’s company, what they are most thankful for, watch a classic American football game, and eat huge amounts of turkey.

In celebration of the event, we’ve put together our ten favorite Thanksgiving record titles that showcase the wholesome holiday.

Fastest time to carve a turkey

The best way to start anything Thanksgiving-related is with the star bird himself, the turkey! Ironically this record was achieved by UK citizien Paul Kelly at a time of 3 min 19.47 sec in Essex, UK. Paul went head-to-head against local butcher David Harrison in 2009, for an event to celebrate the 25th birthday of KellyBronze turkeys. This is Paul's second world record along as he also holds the title for Fastest time to pluck three turkeys; we know many could use his sharp skills at their dinner table!

Largest pie, pumpkin

A dessert that’s made for the biggest of Thanksgiving dinners. The largest pumpkin pie weighed 1,678 kg (3,699 lb) and was made by New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers (USA) at New Bremen Pumpkinfest in New Bremen, Ohio, USA, on 25 September 2010. The diameter of the pie was a whopping 6 m (20 ft). The crust took 440 sheets of dough to construct and the other ingredients used were canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin spice.

Largest inflatable Parade

Every year, the first thing many do upon Thanksgiving Day is turn on their televisions to watch the iconic Macy's Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade make its way through the streets of Manhattan in New York. On Thursday, 22 November 2001 the famous parade celebrated its 75th anniversary, flaunting 30 of its signature, larger-than-life balloons to the millions of spectators lining the streets, setting a new record in the process. I

Longest cooking marathon (individual)

This record could arguably be given to many dedicated culinary grandmothers on the day of Thanksgiving! However, the holder of this record is Benjamin J. Perry (USA) from Lincoln, Rhode Island, who spent 40 hours cooking meals for the title in 2014. Perry is a student at the Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center in Providence, Rhode Island, and in the spirit of giving, donated all food prepared to two local homeless shelters.

Highest Dinner Party

A good record to note if you want to take your family’s Thanksgiving feast to the next level! The greatest altitude at which a formal meal has been held is 6,805 m (22,326 ft) by Henry Shelford, Thomas Shelford, Nakul Misra Pathak, Robert Aitken, Robert Sully (all UK), Caio Buzzolini (Australia) and appointed butler Joshua Heming (UK), who dined on Lhakpa Ri, Tibet in May 2004. The expedition team named “Henry Shelford’s 30th birthday party” were set to dine on the summit of the 7,054 m (23,113 ft) mountain but hurricanes forced them to descend to a more sheltered spot. Still un-phased by the tumultuous weather, the team carried the tables, chairs and silver cutlery as part of the expedition and dined on a feast of caviar as a starter, duck for main course, chocolate bombe for dessert, cheese and wine, followed by birthday cake to finish.

Most doctorates in one family

Having a dinner with estranged relatives can be a bit challenging, but imagine if you have cousins and uncles as competitive as this family! At these record holders’ thanksgiving table, they’ll be iscussing many intellectual conversations with their record for Most doctorate in one family. It was achieved by the children of Shri Ramanna Bhimappa and Smt Parvatibai R. Sonnad of Bhantanur, Karnatak, India, from institutions in both India and USA between 1970 and 1994. University of Wisconsin (21 August 1971), Shivaji University (3 December 1988), Texas A&M University (16 August 1980), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4 June 1984), Karnatak University (14 February 1981), Karnatak University (18 February 1994), University of Bombay (18 August 1970). Impressive!

Most one handed American football catches in one minute

You can try this record at home with a few family members while you wait for dinner to be served! The most one-handed American football catches in a minute is 40 and was achieved by receiver Antonio Brown and quarterback Kirk Cousins (both USA) in San Francisco, California, USA, on 5 February 2016.This record was coordinated by NFL Network on the Friday before Super Bowl 50. The current record might be 40, but can you beat their record on this Thanksgiving holiday?

Largest collection of cookbooks

This title could also be considered a Thanksgiving encyclopedia, filled with many dishes to test out on family members when they come over! The largest collection of cookbooks belongs to Sue Jimenez (USA & Canada) and consists of 2,970 books as of 14 July 2013, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. This is Sue Jimenez' second book collection, the first collection was donated to the local library.

Most mashed potatoes eaten in one minute

You might think you eat a lot on Thanksgiving, but check out this record holder. Andre Ortolf (Germany) ate the most mashed potatoes eaten in one minute at 893 g (31.5 oz) in November 2014.To calculate the final weight, all excess mashed potato from the spoon as well as the face were deducted, but he still ate nearly two pounds of potatoes!

Largest bottle of wine

To end our merry round up of records, we give you the record you might need most after putting up with family for more than 6 hours: the largest bottle of wine. It measures an amazing 4.17 m (13 ft 8.17 in) tall, 1.21 m (3 ft 11.63 in) in diameter and was filled with 3,094 litres (650.58 UK gal, 817.34 US gal) of delicious wine, achieved by André Vogel in Lyssach, Switzerland, on 20 October 2014.